Sustainability Toolkit programme enters its second pilot

YBI is continuing our work to produce an easily adaptable toolkit that enables micro and small businesses to be more sustainable and environmentally conscious. The toolkit programme, supported by JPMorgan Chase and with the assistance of social entrepreneurship consultancy SoJo, has been developed by five YBI members who ran a pilot training program last year. Hatch Enterprise (UK), Fetola (South Africa), Positiv (France), KIZ (Germany) and Youth Business Spain have provided their feedback on the trial in preparation for the next phase of the programme.

New YBI members joining the programme

Ten additional organisations, two per country, are beginning the second pilot of the programme this spring to trial the updated toolkit. They have met with the original five YBI members for peer learning sessions and will be applying the learnings to their own enterprise support settings. The ten new delivery partners joining the programme are:

• Dones pel Futur (Spain)
• Empow’Her (France)
• FITT (Germany)
• Fundación ONCE (Spain)
• Launch It (UK)
• Les Premieres (France)
• My Dough (South Africa)
• Social Impact (Germany)
• The Entrepreneurial Refugee Network (TERN) (UK)
• WomHub (South Africa)

The second pilot, being rolled out to 200 young entrepreneurs in total, will take place over the summer and will be followed by a Community of Practice for the fifteen members to share their knowledge later this year. The finalized toolkit and learnings will be shared with all YBI members.

What’s new in Pilot 2?

In addition to changes made to the toolkit based on the feedback from the first pilot, we have now included accessible versions of tools in document format alongside audio files to accompany longer sections of text. Alt-text has been added to images and visual elements and a light visibility check for all ‘designed’ elements was undertaken. Additionally, descriptive labels have been created for links, buttons and sections to improve the overall accessibility of the toolkit.

YBI is continuing our commitment to responsible youth entrepreneurship as a force for good, inspiring more inclusive businesses focused on solving social, economic and environmental problems. This toolkit is part of the wider toolkit that YBI is developing that also focuses on governance and social impact.